California Coast & Ocean

For several decades, most commercial and recreational fishing equipment has been constructed from synthetic materials that do not decompose in seawater for years. Some of the gear lost over the last half-century is still in the marine environment. Nets, lines, pots, traps, and other equipment lie on the seabed, get caught on rocky reefs, or float in the water column, entangling and trapping marine life, endangering boats and people—especially divers—and damaging habitat.

Fishermen seldom abandon gear in the ocean intentionally: the loss of a large gillnet or a set of crab pots is a significant economic blow to them. However, it is not uncommon for a line attaching a piece of gear to a vessel or a float to fail, or to get cut by another boat’s propeller. Sometimes stormy weather will wash a pot, trap, or net far from where it was put in the water, so that the fisherman can’t find it when he returns to harvest his catch.

The cumulative impacts on the marine environment can be enormous. Around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, hundreds of tons of fishing nets clog the reefs, tear away corals, and entangle marine life, including sharks, birds, sea turtles, and the endangered Hawaiian monk seal.

Between 1982 and 2000, divers found more than 200 Hawaiian monk seals drowned in derelict nets—in 1999 alone they found 25, according to studies by Raymond Boland, Mary Donohue, and others published in Marine Pollution Bulletin.

In Puget Sound and the Northwest Straits, hundreds of crab pots and gill nets have been documented on the seafloor and on underwater rocks. Gillnet fishermen there report that they lose 10–20 percent of their gear every year, and in surveys for bottom fish in Puget Sound and Hood Canal, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife recovered more than 100,000 pieces of derelict fishing gear in their sampling nets during just one year. Off the San Juan Islands, divers observed piles of bird bones as high as three feet under a gill net caught on some rocks. The bones had drifted down from decomposing carcasses. The problem is global, and California is not exempt. Off the North Coast, numerous crab pots are lost in the water each year. Often, by the time the Department of Fish and Game has a chance to go pull some of them out of the water, many are embedded in the seafloor and impossible to drag to the surface. Along the Central Coast and off the Channel Islands, underwater surveys have found derelict gear draped over rocky reefs, some of it “flagging ”—waving in the water column.

No scientific studies have been done on the impacts of derelict fishing gear on marine life in California waters. Every year, however, wildlife rehabilitation facilities along the coast care for seals, sea lions, and birds that are brought in with severe injuries due to entanglement.

Fortunately, derelict fishing gear in the ocean is a problem we can do something about: we can remove it.

The nation’s first comprehensive effort to do this began in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands in 1988. So far, NOAA Fisheries (formerly the National Marine Fisheries Service), working with 16 other agencies and organizations, has removed 495 tons of derelict gear, according to Mary Donohue of the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program in Honolulu.

In 2002, a second program was launched in Washington state. Nearly 1,000 nets, pots, and traps have been removed from the water since then. Nearly 500 entangled fish—including endangered salmon and rockfish species—and four marine mammals have been counted. In this program, the Northwest Straits Commission and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife have teamed up with Natural Resources Consultants, Inc., of Seattle. Much of the actual removal is done by sea urchin fishermen—experts at working long hours underwater—who work for the program during their off-season. After the gear is located by sonar, as well as visually by SCUBA divers, the removers, wearing dry suits and breathing surface-supplied air, descend into the water and detach the objects found.

Removing a net draped over rocks without harming marine life requires careful cutting and gentle detachment. Nets and pots embedded in muddy or sandy bottom are freed by hand-digging. If a live animal is enmeshed or trapped in the gear, the diver gently disentangles it and sets it free.

A hydraulic winch is used to lift the gear to the surface and bring it aboard. On deck, the team biologist collects data on the type of gear (e.g., recreational vs. commercial), and the number and species of dead organisms present, if any. Carcasses are returned to the water to decompose naturally or be scavenged.

“It is so personally satisfying to realize that a substantial quantity of derelict fishing gear can be removed in just one day of work,” says Tom Cowan, director of the Northwest Straits Commission. “That gear may have been needlessly capturing and killing fish, shellfish, marine birds and mammals for literally decades. While many marine restoration projects take years to plan and implement, removing derelict fishing gear provides immediate and quantifiable results.”

The programs in Hawaii and Washington state have served as models for a pilot program launched this past summer in California by the Coastal Conservancy and the SeaDoc Society, a marine ecosystem health program of the University of California, Davis, Wildlife Health Center. The Northwest Straits Commission is making a $25,000 in-kind contribution, using some of the funds allocated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for removing derelict gear from waters around the country, and the Laurel Foundation has provided $20,000.

Certified SCUBA divers will be hired to remove gear, using field-tested techniques. Like the programs in Washington and Hawaii, the California program is designed to operate on the “no-fault” principle. It will encourage the reporting of derelict gear by not assigning either blame or penalties. As in Washington, recovered gear will be returned to owners if they can be identified.

The pilot program will focus on state marine waters in four areas: Catalina Island, Morro Bay, Point Lobos to Elkhorn Slough in Monterey County, and Humboldt Bay to Trinidad Head in Humboldt County. The SeaDoc Society will set up web-based and toll-free reporting systems, so that fishermen, divers, and boat operators can report derelict gear they happen upon. After the pilot project is completed, in about a year, it is expected that the program will be expanded statewide.

Kirsten Gilardi, a wildlife veterinarian, coordinates the California Derelict Fishing Gear Removal Pilot Project. She is assistant director of the U.C. Davis Wildlife Health Center and executive director of the SeaDoc Society, which operates in California and Washington state. SeaDoc generates new scientific information for marine stewards at the local, state, and federal levels through research and translation of science to decision makers. See www.seadocsociety.org and also www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/whc.

	California Coast & Ocean
	Derelict Gear
	Kirsten Gilardi
	For several decades, most commercial and recreational fishing equipment has been constructed from synthetic materials that do not decompose in seawater for years. Some of the gear lost over the last half-century is still in the marine environment. Nets, lines, pots, traps, and other equipment lie on the seabed, get caught on rocky reefs, or float in the water column, entangling and trapping marine life, endangering boats and people—especially divers—and damaging habitat. Fishermen seldom abandon gear in the ocean intentionally: the loss of a large gillnet or a set of crab pots is a significant economic blow to them. However, it is not uncommon for a line attaching a piece of gear to a vessel or a float to fail, or to get cut by another boat’s propeller. Sometimes stormy weather will wash a pot, trap, or net far from where it was put in the water, so that the fisherman can’t find it when he returns to harvest his catch. The cumulative impacts on the marine environment can be enormous. Around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, hundreds of tons of fishing nets clog the reefs, tear away corals, and entangle marine life, including sharks, birds, sea turtles, and the endangered Hawaiian monk seal. Between 1982 and 2000, divers found more than 200 Hawaiian monk seals drowned in derelict nets—in 1999 alone they found 25, according to studies by Raymond Boland, Mary Donohue, and others published in Marine Pollution Bulletin. In Puget Sound and the Northwest Straits, hundreds of crab pots and gill nets have been documented on the seafloor and on underwater rocks. Gillnet fishermen there report that they lose 10–20 percent of their gear every year, and in surveys for bottom fish in Puget Sound and Hood Canal, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife recovered more than 100,000 pieces of derelict fishing gear in their sampling nets during just one year. Off the San Juan Islands, divers observed piles of bird bones as high as three feet under a gill net caught on some rocks. The bones had drifted down from decomposing carcasses. The problem is global, and California is not exempt. Off the North Coast, numerous crab pots are lost in the water each year. Often, by the time the Department of Fish and Game has a chance to go pull some of them out of the water, many are embedded in the seafloor and impossible to drag to the surface. Along the Central Coast and off the Channel Islands, underwater surveys have found derelict gear draped over rocky reefs, some of it “flagging ”—waving in the water column. No scientific studies have been done on the impacts of derelict fishing gear on marine life in California waters. Every year, however, wildlife rehabilitation facilities along the coast care for seals, sea lions, and birds that are brought in with severe injuries due to entanglement. Fortunately, derelict fishing gear in the ocean is a problem we can do something about: we can remove it. The nation’s first comprehensive effort to do this began in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands in 1988. So far, NOAA Fisheries (formerly the National Marine Fisheries Service), working with 16 other agencies and organizations, has removed 495 tons of derelict gear, according to Mary Donohue of the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program in Honolulu. In 2002, a second program was launched in Washington state. Nearly 1,000 nets, pots, and traps have been removed from the water since then. Nearly 500 entangled fish—including endangered salmon and rockfish species—and four marine mammals have been counted. In this program, the Northwest Straits Commission and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife have teamed up with Natural Resources Consultants, Inc., of Seattle. Much of the actual removal is done by sea urchin fishermen—experts at working long hours underwater—who work for the program during their off-season. After the gear is located by sonar, as well as visually by SCUBA divers, the removers, wearing dry suits and breathing surface-supplied air, descend into the water and detach the objects found. Removing a net draped over rocks without harming marine life requires careful cutting and gentle detachment. Nets and pots embedded in muddy or sandy bottom are freed by hand-digging. If a live animal is enmeshed or trapped in the gear, the diver gently disentangles it and sets it free. A hydraulic winch is used to lift the gear to the surface and bring it aboard. On deck, the team biologist collects data on the type of gear (e.g., recreational vs. commercial), and the number and species of dead organisms present, if any. Carcasses are returned to the water to decompose naturally or be scavenged. “It is so personally satisfying to realize that a substantial quantity of derelict fishing gear can be removed in just one day of work,” says Tom Cowan, director of the Northwest Straits Commission. “That gear may have been needlessly capturing and killing fish, shellfish, marine birds and mammals for literally decades. While many marine restoration projects take years to plan and implement, removing derelict fishing gear provides immediate and quantifiable results.” The programs in Hawaii and Washington state have served as models for a pilot program launched this past summer in California by the Coastal Conservancy and the SeaDoc Society, a marine ecosystem health program of the University of California, Davis, Wildlife Health Center. The Northwest Straits Commission is making a $25,000 in-kind contribution, using some of the funds allocated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for removing derelict gear from waters around the country, and the Laurel Foundation has provided $20,000. Certified SCUBA divers will be hired to remove gear, using field-tested techniques. Like the programs in Washington and Hawaii, the California program is designed to operate on the “no-fault” principle. It will encourage the reporting of derelict gear by not assigning either blame or penalties. As in Washington, recovered gear will be returned to owners if they can be identified. The pilot program will focus on state marine waters in four areas: Catalina Island, Morro Bay, Point Lobos to Elkhorn Slough in Monterey County, and Humboldt Bay to Trinidad Head in Humboldt County. The SeaDoc Society will set up web-based and toll-free reporting systems, so that fishermen, divers, and boat operators can report derelict gear they happen upon. After the pilot project is completed, in about a year, it is expected that the program will be expanded statewide. Kirsten Gilardi, a wildlife veterinarian, coordinates the California Derelict Fishing Gear Removal Pilot Project. She is assistant director of the U.C. Davis Wildlife Health Center and executive director of the SeaDoc Society, which operates in California and Washington state. SeaDoc generates new scientific information for marine stewards at the local, state, and federal levels through research and translation of science to decision makers. See www.seadocsociety.org and also www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/whc.